Mikis Theodorakis is a great man. Far too great to fit into a little blog. Throughout the dark years of the dictatorship in Greece, his songs, clandestinely circulated, on pain of severe punishment, provided hope, steeled resistance. They hold the same magic today. He was imprisoned, exiled, vilified, persecuted in every way, but he stood strong.
The politics of Shock and Awe currently being unleashed on the citizens of Europe by order of The Frau have achieved their purpose. We are prostrate and cringing in fear of the next blow. Which comes before we have even had tome to take stock of the previous one.
But there is hope. Hope in numbers. Inspiration from those who have gone through the pain and suffering of war, civil war, totalitarian repression. And here in Greece the dictatorship was just yesterday and the Nazi Occupation still very much alive in the stories we all heard from parents and grand parents.
Not only did they survive, but from their own cringing prostration there leapt out the flame of resistance eventually. This is one of Theodorakis’ songs that inspired us during the dictatorship and can do so now again.
“We are two, we are three, we are a thousand and three!” Vox populi.
And a Happy Easter for all those of the Western Persuasion. All those of the Eastern Persuasion have to wait another week for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection! But don’t worry. It will come. It always does. History is not linear, it turns in cycles.